Man City’s scathing assessment of Rayan Cherki’s mentality exposed in A Beutiful Obsession

Manchester City’s recruitment team have revealed they had concerns over Rayan Cherki’s mentality before signing the French midfielder, with behind-the-scenes footage showing the club comparing his potential profile to peak Kevin De Bruyne.

The astonishing conversation features in A Beautiful Obsession, the four-part documentary following Pep Guardiola and the inner workings of Manchester City.

Cherki brought into question by City recruitment team

The series first aired on Prime Video on Tuesday, August 19, with the clip offering an unusually revealing look at how City assessed Cherki before deciding to make their move.

In the footage, members of City’s recruitment team discuss their data-driven approach to identifying players with similar characteristics.

“43 into just seven numbers. And then based on those seven numbers, we can cluster similar players together,” one member of the team explains.

“Number 10. So this is similarity to peak Kevin De Bruyne. Do you see already?”

The conversation then turns to Cherki, with the recruitment team suggesting the former Lyon star could potentially develop into a player who fits De Bruyne’s profile.

“Then you have Cherki. Could be Kevin’s profiling two years’ time.”

However, the discussion takes an unexpected turn when the midfielder’s mentality is brought up.

“But the mentality is…” the speaker says, before admitting that the information City had initially gathered about Cherki was not particularly encouraging.

“The information on Cherki was not so, so positive. I will be very honest,” they explain.

“Everybody knew about his abilities, but there was this idea that he was chaotic.”

The documentary then appears to reveal how City’s recruitment operation attempted to establish whether those concerns were justified.

“So, you know, they saw in Turkey, taking over to several coaches. There was one that gave a bad report when he was very young.”

However, the club’s assessment apparently changed as they gathered more information.

“So they’re getting convinced that maybe his behavior is just a myth.”

Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak also features in the documentary footage discussing the pursuit of Cherki.

During a call, Al-Mubarak appears to urge the club’s recruitment team to act before the player’s value becomes more widely recognised.

“Hey, Fernando, we have to think really how to unlock this, because now it’s clear that this is becoming undervalued,” he says.

“Deals like this, you keep them open for long, and people will wake up at some point.”

He then references discussions with Cherki’s representatives.

“So we were in Turkey, had a conversation with the agent. He has approaches from other teams, but he wants to talk to Ben.”

Clip divides supporter response

The discussion has already prompted a mixed response online, with some supporters questioning why City’s internal concerns about a current player were included.

One X user wrote: “Behaviour and mentality concerns and they still Bought him. Interesting.”

Another claimed: “You can see his s**t mentality on the pitch tbh.”

Others questioned the comparison with De Bruyne, with one posting: “They have no f***in clue peak Kevin de bruyne. They are not even the same profile.”

Another supporter was particularly scathing of City for allowing the comments to become public, writing: “I’m sorry but why the hell are we revealing attitude issues of our current players? Aren’t we supposed to protect our players? How does this portray Cherki in a good light when the management is shown saying there were concerns about his mentality. That’s f***ing absurd imo.”